Once Upon A Tron
by DarthRushy
Summary: Emma and Mary Margaret are trapped in the TRON realm instead of the Enchanted Forest after 2x02 and must journey through the dangerous and unpredictable Internet to get home to the Storybrooke server. AU.
1. Beginning

The whirlwind of the Mad Hatter's hat was stronger than anything Emma had ever felt before. She saw Regina falling in and no matter her feelings toward the cruel woman, she wasn't just about to let her fall to some godforsaken Wonderland or anything. So, she grabbed onto her and pulled her out, causing herself to fall in. Mary Margaret, not willing to let her daughter go jumped in after and the purple tornado engulfed both.

When Emma finally opened her eyes after the nauseating trip, all she was neon lights tracing a room. She got a good look around and to her immense surprise, she was wearing some kind of a suit and helmet, with blue circuitry on it. She recognized it immediately as the suits from the 1982 Tron movie and couldn't help saying: "Oh man, this isn't happening, it only thinks it's happening." Next to her, she saw Mary Margaret. "Mary Margaret! Mary Margaret, are you okay?!" Snow woke up to that and saw her daughter, wearing a very eccentric-looking helmet on her head. "Emma? What are you wearing?" Emma couldn't help but chuckle slightly. Out of all the worlds she could've ended up in, she ended up in Tronville.

Suddenly, several blue-lined programs appeared with discs in hand.  
_Funny, these guys were always red in the movies._  
"Identify yourselves!"  
Emma, being cautious chose to say: "I'm Emma and this is Mary. We're... we're actuarial programs and uh... do you know Tron? We're looking for him."  
The security programs stiffened slightly.  
"Commander Tron is busy in the other sectors of the system. Identify your purpose."  
"We need Tron 'cause he has experience with Users. We... thought he could help us with something. Please?"  
The security programs looked disbelieving but then the leader said: "We'll contact him. Take them to a holding cell."

The security programs escorted Snow and Emma to a holding cell somewhat similar to the one that programmer guy, Ram and Tron had been kept in. As soon as they got there, Emma quickly explained everything she remembered of this realm and they both agreed not to reveal their identities to anyone but Tron. Soon, the security programs returned, more relaxed.  
"One of you can now contact Commander Tron." they said. Emma left the cell with them and followed them to a blue version of Sark's command ship where she was allowed to step into his little "MCP tube" where a holographic Tron appeared.  
"Who are you?"  
"My name is Emma, I'm a User and I need your help."  
Tron squinted his eyes.  
"Go on."  
"My friend and I, we got trapped. We need to find a way back home, we're from another world.  
Tron restrained rolling his eyes. The situation was so depressingly familiar. He tried not to think of Flynn these days. The User had been his friend but as soon as he got his Grid, he'd copied himself his own Tron and left with him to build his precious digital frontier.  
He said: "Look, believe it or not, I'm not exactly an expert on how this traveling between the worlds works, but one thing I can tell you is that getting out is a lot harder than getting in."  
_Hadn't Flynn used some kind of an I/O portal in Tron: Legacy?_  
"What about the I/O portals?"  
Tron scoffed. "They're only capable of communication. If there's someone you can talk to in the User world, then..."  
Suddenly, Emma got an idea. "Storybrooke!"  
Tron was confused. "What?  
"We're from Storybrooke, does that exist here?"  
"Where is Storybrooke located, I have a world map program who could help."  
Emma continued, excited: "Storybrooke's in Maine, do you think he could find it?"  
"We can try."

Tron walked to the bridge and ordered the pilot programs to set course back to the heart of the ENCOM system. Thoughts and memories filled his brain. His adventures with Flynn, Ram and Yori... taking down the MCP... Flynn leaving for the last time with the other Tron...  
But despite his painful experience, he never forgot his main directive:  
_I fight for the Users._


	2. The Solar Sailer

Emma, Mary Margaret and Tron stood in a very peculiar chamber filled with holographic maps. There was a very large control chair in the middle which a young man operated. Tron spoke first: "These Users need to locate Storybrooke. Can you help us?" The man tapped on his keyboard for a while until finally looking up. "No. Such a town does not exist in Maine or anywhere else." Emma's heart sank but Mary Margaret's didn't. She said: "It may, soon."  
"What do you mean?" Tron asked. "The Mad Hatter's hat can only take people to worlds with even the slightest magic. If there's magic here, we could create a pathway to the real Storybrooke server." Both Emma and Tron looked at her as if she was insane. "It's all I got!" Snow said. Emma shrugged and Tron scowled. "If you can create this portal thing to your world, you're going to have to leave this system to do it. We'll have to go to the inter-system transport center."

Tron, giving them a ride in his huge ship, took them to the "transport center", where hundreds of solar sailers, containing information and programs left the ENCOM system. There, they found a free sailer for their own use and Tron set in the coordinates as Maine.  
"We'll be leaving in a quarter of a millicycle." he said, finally not scowling anymore. Emma looked at the solar sailer at wonder. She remembered the solar sailer from the Tron movie, yet to actually be on one was beyond fun. Suddenly there was a loud hit on the sailer though.  
"A VIRUS!" Emma and Snow looked over the sailer and sure enough, a yellow-circuited computer virus infected and corrupted the center. Tron quickly hurried over to controls. "We have to get out of here!" and punched in some controls. The sailer didn't move and Tron tried harder. "Move! MOVE! MOVE!" he yelled. A firefight broke out at the center and just when Tron got the sailer working, a powerful blast hit the sailer and Snow flew through the air and disappeared.  
"SNOOOOOOW!"

Tron grabbed Emma before she could jump in after her. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, WE HAVE TO GET HER, WE HAVE TO GET HER!" Poor User. He grabbed her by the shoulders. "It's too late for that, there's nothing we can do!" he yelled back. Only his warrior reflexes saved him from Emma's punch. She ran over to the controls and tried to send the sailer back but had no idea how. "Emma, she's gone, nothing could've survived that."  
_To hell with it!_  
She grabbed her disc and was about to hit the consoles when Tron stopped her and literally choked her. "If you do this, her sacrifice will have been in vain! Do you understand?!"  
Emma was in shock. This certainly wasn't the friendly Tron she remembered."  
"...yes."  
Tron let her go and she sat down and broke into tears.

The solar sailer made its way across the Outlands, flying on a beam. Tron couldn't help but be reminded of his own journey once again. Of course, there had been no virus to interfere(he'd have to deal with that immediately once he returned) but the MCP wasn't exactly a piece of cake either. Who was this User? Had they gotten in like Flynn had, zapped by a laser at the wrong time or somehow differently? He would've asked about Flynn's whereabouts but since the User seemed pretty distraught right now, he chose not to interfere, but rather checked the sailer's destination. In a User hour or so, they'd be leaving ENCOM. And in about a millicycle, they'd arrive at their destination, whatever it was. Everything was going according to plan. Yet, something nagged at the back of Tron's mind. Something he'd forgotten a long time ago. He saw black squares beneath the sailer and tried to remember where he'd seen them before. Eventually he just tossed them out of his mind.

Meanwhile, out of anyone's sight, the black squares turned into green spiders and began following the sailer discreetly...

Emma sat, unmoving. This was probably the worst day of her life. Not only was she stuck inside a computer world that she only had a vague clue from her mother on how to escape but her mother was dead. How Charming would take that, she didn't even want to think. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement but thought it was nothing.

The Gridbugs closed in.


	3. More Problems

Suddenly, Tron heard a noise and recognized it right away. How could he have been so stupid, all the typical Gridbug symptoms were there!  
The Gridbugs launched themselves on top of the sailer!  
"GRIDBUGS! EMMA WATCH OUT!"  
Emma jumped up and drew her disc, as did Tron. Both of them attacked the vicious bugs, but they were tearing the sailer apart bit by bit. The area they were traveling through was completely infested by the bugs. Soon enough, the damage they had done was so great that the sailer froze on the beam, with no other junction in sight. Tron was doing his very best yet for every bug he took down, four more showed up. When the sailer finally went on the verge of breaking in half, Tron withdrew his grappler hook from his leg and motioned for Emma to come over. Before the Gridbugs could get them, Tron shot at a nearby mountain and he and Emma flew off the sailer!

Emma and Tron stood on a cliff and watched with great disdain as their precious ship finally derezzed. They'd hidden beneath rocks to prevent the Gridbugs from finding them and had discovered a new problem. Tron wasn't designed to function in the Outlands, and unless Emma re-powered her about every User hour, he'd slowly derez. It was fortunate that Tron had been carrying around Light Cycle batons for security ever since the MCP's reign. He tossed one for Emma and explained how to make it work and for 20 minutes, they had a fine ride until Tron stopped. Emma radioed him: "Tron, is everything alright?" Tron answered, weakly: "My systems are derezzing again."  
Emma sighed. This was gonna be a long, long, long trip. She stopped her Cycle and quickly re-powered Tron and his Cycle and moved on, but unfortunately, fate was unkind to her that day and they ended up in a very, very bad terrain. Having to stop every hour for powering Tron and every half an hour to move around an unride-able area, they were going very slowly.

Tron halted again.  
_Now what? It's only been 10 minutes since I re-powered you!_  
"Emma Swan, stop."  
"What is it?"  
"Emma, I'm... I'm holding you back. Don't bother to deny it, we both know its true. You'll never make it back to the User world if you keep letting me delay you."  
"Tron, I'm not just gonna leave you out here!" Emma protested. "You have no choice. I fight for the Users and if I have to get derezzed whilst doing it, then that's what will happen."  
Was he insane?  
"There's a difference between dying while fighting Master Controls and slowly dying alone in this place, okay? You. Are. Not. Staying."  
Tron knew he could never convince her so he acted impulsively and tossed his baton into the abyss where it vanished.  
"Tron, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO!"  
"What was necessary! I will not have you tumble around these canyons for the rest of your existence, Emma Swan! You're a User for Users sake! Act like one!"  
Emma was taken aback. A program was teaching her how to be human.  
_This has got to go down in history._

A hand emerged from a forgotten cliff, a small but strong hand. After the hand came a pixie haircut, followed by Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard herself. As the blast hit, she had had one second to think and she knew she wasn't ready to go yet. She had to stay, for Emma, Henry, for Charming and for their future. So she'd stayed. Snow didn't really know how she survived or what happened, but eventually she found herself climbing a computer cliff up. She waited til the battle was finally over before drawing attention herself. A young-looking blue program looked down.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey! Can you help me please?!"  
The program looked confused.  
"Who... who are you?"  
"My name's Mary! I'm a User so please HELP NOW!"  
The program was shocked but quickly regained his composure and went down to Mary to drag her up. He did so successfully. Snow said: "Thanks, you saved me. What's your name?"  
"My name? My name's Zuse."


	4. The Deal

The whirring of the Light Cycle calmed Emma as she rode through the canyons and mountains of the endless Outlands, trying to keep an eye on the energy beam and the rocks at the same time. She was completely broken: Mary Margaret was dead, she was stuck in an alternate realm with no real idea how to leave and now her last companion was gone. She had had no choice but to leave Tron where he was and just leave, as much as it hurt.

"Zuse? Can you help me a bit more? I need to find another solar sailer to go after Tron, he's taking my daughter outside the system." Zuse thought for a bit and then looked up. "I don't think so, no the transport center is out of commission until the Users can remove the corrupted code. But you are a User and you are in a hurry, yes?" Snow answered immediately: "A very big hurry." Zuse smiled. "Then I suppose I can get some transport for you. After all, Flynn didn't choose me for the Grid for nothing." Snow looked surprised. "You were one of the programs in the Grid?" Zuse appeared very proud of himself.  
"Yes, I was one of the special programs who were chosen for the copying procedure. I can only hope that my duplicate in the Grid is fulfilling Flynn's trust in me." Snow interrupted him from his dreamy look. "Look, Zuse, I need to get a ship and go after them right now. Can you do that or not?!"  
Zuse looked offended. "Of course I can. Come with me."

Zuse took Snow to a hangar, buried underground downtown. The hangar contained some Recognizers and was full of scurrying yellow programs all whom listed their names in front of a female, innocent-looking blue program. Zuse took Snow to her.  
"Allow me to introduce my assistant, Gem. Gem, this is Mary, a User. She needs transport to go after Tron."  
Gem looked at her panel. "We can put her on the Recognizer with the Trojan programs."  
"Trojans? You transport Trojan programs?!"  
Zuse calmed her. "No, no, it's not what you think, we're only taking these programs away for analysis, not to attack other systems. Now, here's your... erm, seat."  
He showed Mary a group of alcoves on top of the Recognizer and told her she'd be there with the Trojans. "Now, then. Let's talk about the price."  
"Price."  
Zuse grinned enthusiastically. "My dear User, everything comes with a price and this is no exception. And the price is... your identity disc."  
"My what?"  
Zuse sighed. "The blue disc on your back, hand it to me."  
Mary hadn't even noticed there was a disc on her back, but when she took it off, she felt different. Weak, slightly.  
"What does it do?"  
"It records everything you do or learn. It'd be a nice insight to the User world for me."  
_Hang on a minute? Does that thing have all my memories on it?!_  
"Can't we agree on something else?!"  
"We could, if only your daughter and Tron weren't going further and further from us all the time."  
_Touche._  
"Deal."

Tron sat against a deserted cliff wall, his eyes closed, his circuits growing dimmer by the minute. He literally felt the power draining from him and there was nothing to stop it.  
_I fight for the Users._  
Since his creation, that had been like a mantra for him, his purpose, his being, when he met Flynn, when he took down the MCP and when Flynn had left.  
_I fight for the Users._  
He was derezzing. He could feel it. His mind was going. He could feel it. There was no question about it. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was afraid. And then he thought of Yori, her beautiful face, her charming personality. Before the accident... before the accident...

And with a jolt, all of Tron's systems came online again on maximum power and his eyes sprang open to a view he thought he'd never see. He was staring at his own face...


	5. Author's Notes

**Author's Notes: **I didn't exactly know how to do this so I'll just do it now. I OBVIOUSLY don't own ABC's Once Upon A Time or Disney's Tron or Tron: Legacy.

Also, I wanted to mention that the story takes chronologically place in 2011, 1 year after the events of Tron: Legacy. The old, but heavily updated Tron program still operates in the ENCOM server, but no one else like Dumont or Yori are there anymore. Also, the obvious reason why programs such as Tron and Zuse are there because Flynn _copied_ the programs over to the Grid, not take them out(someone would've noticed that) and Tron has abandonment issues with that.


	6. Magic

**Author's**** Notes: **The tunnel that I mention in this chapter is the tunnel that we saw in the 1982 movie about halfway during the scene in which the characters fly on the solar sailer towards the MCP. It has those "whirling", "technical" colors in it.

* * *

_There it is._  
A gigantic tunnel lead into the Internet and out of the ENCOM system. Now, if whatever Mary Margaret had said was correct, this was the place where Emma had to use magic to get into the real Internet instead of this realm's version of it. Whether Emma could even exist in the real one though was a tough question.

Emma used Tron's grappler hook to climb up the mountain towards the tunnel(which was in the middle) and strapped her baton on her leg like Tron had. She felt very heavy and decided not to look down. A few hours later, after several near-fatal accidents, Emma had finally climbed into the tunnel and saw nothing but bizarre colors.  
_This is it._  
Emma concentrated, concentrated hard and slammed her palms down at the floor. Her circuits turned from blue to purple and magic energy emanated from her hands, causing purple streaks to go through tunnel walls. Emma's eyes widened as she finally felt the power she possessed in this realm. "Now for some real User power... you weren't kidding were you?"

Snow struggled to control her fear as the Recognizer she was on made daredevil jumps and turns through the canyons of the Outlands. She had no idea where they were going but the energy beam she'd seen Emma and Tron leave on always stayed somewhere in sight which was some comfort.  
_I better find them after all I'm forced to go through here._  
As the Recognizer went upside-down, she found herself missing Charming more than terribly. He'd know exactly what to do or say to her in a situation like this. She missed his optimistic attitude, his smile that melted her heart every time and his beautiful voice and their hugs and especially their kisses.  
_Damn Rumple and damn his problems!_

As control over the tunnel flowed through her(somewhat like Palpatine had described the Force), Emma concentrated hard on Storybrooke and the Land Without Magic. The tunnel's colors changed from a purple hue to a green one and she hoped it was enough. She re-activated her Light Cycle and rode through the tunnel on high speed. She saw the exit of the tunnel far away and rode faster, hoping to get home as soon as possible. Suddenly, however the Light Cycle flew out of the tunnel and over the sky! The exit's distance had been a clever trick of the eye on the tunnel's part. "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!"  
She concentrated as hard as possible, not knowing if this was going to work in any way and somehow reconstructed her Light Cycle into a very small Light Jet.  
"Whoah."

As the Recognizer flew towards the tunnel leading into the Internet, Mary Margaret braced herself for the transfer, not knowing how its going to feel like. When she felt nothing for about a minute, she opened her eyes and realized that the Recognizer had stopped in front of the tunnel. And from the Trojans' talk, she quickly realized why. Apparently the usually "grey-green-blue-yellow" computer-colored tunnel now had irregular and large green streaks in it.  
_Emma._  
It was the only possibility. She and Tron must've made it out.

Tron drew in a deep breath as he watched his duplicate pilot the Light Runner they were driving in. His duplicate was identical to him, yet so different, calmer, even more reserved and careful and a lot more intelligent.  
_So long I've waited for this moment and now its here yet it is nothing I imagined._  
He watched his copy not with resentment, but with awe.


	7. Surprise After Surprise

"EMMA!"  
Mary Margaret couldn't believe her eyes. It was impossible but somehow, somehow she saw Emma, flying that Light Jet. The Trojan programs did not react to her scream but Emma sure did. She turned her head towards her and her eyes went wider than the Mad Hatter's hat.

It was impossible, impossible! She saw Snow fly through the air and vanish into the darkness of deresolution. Even Tron, an expert on Users as far as this realm was concerned had not doubted she was gone. But then again... she had just created a portal to the real world a few minutes ago and constructed a Light Jet from scratch... maybe the power of Users was even greater than Kevin Flynn had suspected.  
"I'll get you.. mom. I promise."  
With a whoosh, Emma sent the Light Jet flying towards the Recognizer and attached the grappler hook to it. She left the Light Jet to crash whilst jumping to the ship. Using the grappler's retract mechanism, she made her way up to the alcoves. Now the Trojans reacted. They seemed to recognize power in this person and that scared them to bits. Mary Margaret only had to say what they are and Emma derezzed all four of them.  
"Snow, Snow, are you okay?!"  
Snow hugged Emma desperately, not letting herself believe they'd found each other.  
"I'm fine... I'm fine."  
About 10 seconds later, she pulled away and looked into Emma's eyes.  
"Tron?"  
"We were attacked by Gridbugs. Tron... he took me to some mountains but he couldn't survive there. He derezzed."  
Snow nodded absent-mindedly.  
"Can you take care of the pilots?"  
"Yeah."

Emma climbed down on top of the window and let go. Before the pilots could react and put up a force field, she jumped through and derezzed them as well.  
"Did it!"  
Snow jumped down after her and together, they tried to figure out how to operate the controls. Emma pulled up every memory she had of Flynn piloting his Recognizer in the movie and also focused mentally on controlling it. Together, she and Snow managed to gain rudimentary control over the now-blue vehicle.

Tron and his copy stood at the portal. The duplicate spoke first. "They've already gone through. It's obvious that our friends here are more powerful than we thought. Where did you say they came from?"  
"They said it was some place called Storybrooke, Maine."  
The copy frowned. He did not know such a place.  
"Well, whoever they are, whatever they want, they're smart. They're smart and they're powerful, this goes way beyond even Flynn."  
_Beyond Flynn? _  
Tron had never seen anything that could go beyond Flynn's capacity. If these Users were stronger... they might have to be taken care of.

Emma did her best to control the Recognizer but it took a large amount of her energy, a lot more than it did to re-energize Tron. "Come on, come on. Just a little bit more..."  
"Where are you heading?" Snow asked, trying to work on some controls. Despite her own User powers, she wasn't being much help to Emma. She worked on the stabilizers, hoping to make it at least a bit easier.  
Emma smiled to Snow for the first time since like... forever.  
"We're going to Youtube, Snow."

They were now flying right behind them. Tron was aiming the tracker right at the Recognizer's engine so they could tell not only when it stopped but when it would deactivate.  
"FIRE!  
Tron fired.  
"A direct hit, Alan-One. We got 'em."


	8. Alan's Backstory

**Once Upon A Tron: Legacy**

_The Mad Hatter finds a new door in his hat and embarks on an adventure that will change his life forever..._

**COMING SOON**

* * *

1 day ago(User time)

Alan stared blankly at the computer screen. He'd been trying to contact Tron to respond to a mysterious virus that had sprung up in ENCOM, but he had no response. Making a search, Alan had found that Tron was still in the system and he was fine. The program was just not responding. He'd checked Tron over, but found no clue of a malfunction. However, he did find information of two "unauthorized Users" and as such, he'd contacted Sam.

It had happened about a day after Sam officially became CEO. He'd took Alan aside and slowly, carefully explained him the nature of Flynn's experiments and the way he put ENCOM's laser system to use. Alan had thought him crazy... until Sam digitized him and back again(NOT a fun experience, by the way). He swore never to send himself into the computer and Sam was fine with that but now things had changed. Tron would never stop protecting ENCOM... unless Users told him to. Whoever these people were, however they'd gotten in were the questions that plagued both his and Sam's mind and thus, with a lot of reluctance from Alan's part and coaching from Sam's and Quorra's, Alan found himself staring at the screen, waiting for Sam to activate the laser.

"ZAP!"

And then... Alan was no longer there. He was in the ENCOM mainframe. At least that's what he thought. He quickly ran over everything Sam and Quorra knew about the computer system(which, considering that they only visited Flynn's version of it, wasn't much.) and started looking. It wasn't long until he found programs whom he was able to convince to tell him that Tron had taken the two Users to the Transport Center. Apparently, they were trying to leave ENCOM. _That program better have a good explanation for me._

_All I asked for was a nice, quiet job behind a desk!_ Alan thought desperately as he rode through canyons in a Light Runner at an insane speed, following the light beam that the shifty, odd Zuse claimed was the one Tron and his User friend(singular?) were going on.

_My god..._ Alan had expected a lot of crazy stuff from the computer world, but facing your own youth was a bit too much. Remembering Sam's teachings, he placed his hands on Tron's shoulders and transferred some of his energy over to him. The program instantly woke up, his circuits flaring with energy. Alan quickly took a step back as Tron stood up. Old and Young stared each other in the face.  
"Alan-One. You've finally come."  
"I had to. Something was wrong, wasn't it? These Users you were escorting..."  
"I believe they are good. They came in by accident, Alan-One. They were trying to return to their own system in Canada."  
_Canada?! How the hell did they end up out here? Who are they?_  
That's what he asked Tron.  
"One of them is called Emma Swan. The other is Mary Margaret Blanchard. The second died trying to get Emma and me on the solar sailer."  
"And... Emma Swan?"  
"She got away on the Light Cycle. I couldn't survive here, but she could."  
Alan shook his head absent-mindedly. None of this made any sense whatsoever. How did these people get in? Where did they really come from? Who were they?

Alan and Tron rode together in the Light Runner, neither of them making a sound. They were both creeped out by each other. Tron, because he saw Alan as some kind of a god, Alan because he saw Tron as the son he never really had(besides Sam). _Flynn, why oh why couldn't you just leave poor Dillinger at peace...?_

Alan and Tron stood at the portal.  
_Oh my god..._  
Alan stared at it. Emma had done something to the portal to direct it towards her destination, he presumed 'cause Tron didn't seem to have another explanation either.  
"They've already gone through. It's obvious that our friends here are more powerful than we thought. Where did you say they came from?"  
"They said it was some place called Storybrooke, Maine."  
Alan frowned. He had never heard of a town called Storybrooke.  
_Probably just a random name they fed to him._  
"Well, whoever they are, whatever they want, they're smart. They're smart and they're powerful, this goes way beyond even Flynn."  
He and his young copy stared into an identical distance.

_Holy cow! I just turned that Light Runner into a Jet. How crazy is that?_  
_I'm talking to programs, I have psychic powers and now I'm telekinetic. I'll probably be reading minds next..._  
This wasn't a great day.

They were now flying right behind them. Tron was aiming the tracker right at the Recognizer's engine so they could tell not only when it stopped but when it would deactivate.  
"FIRE!  
Tron fired.  
"A direct hit, Alan-One. We got 'em."


	9. The YouTube Nexus

_Finally!_  
After like, 8 hours of riding on their Recognizer, they had finally arrived at a gigantic skyscraper with the classic red-and-white "YouTube" written on it. The lights were flaring from it. One could sense the energy even from this distance.  
They landed the Recognizer in a nearby hole and Emma somehow lowered the cockpit to the ground and they were able to come out.  
Snow said: "So... we're here. Now what?"  
Emma walked hurriedly towards the entrance. "Youtube is one of the most visited pages of the entire Internet. If we can hook up with someone in Storybrooke, we might have a better chance of getting to their server." Snow looked confused.  
"How do you know all that stuff?"  
"Logic, Mary Margaret. Logic."

"They've landed, Alan-One."  
The YouTube Nexus.  
Alan couldn't resist smirking. Neither Flynn nor Sam had ever given him lessons what to do if you end up inside Youtube.  
_This should be interesting._

Tron walked beside Alan-One, ready to serve him whenever required. He felt a certain... awkwardness. Yes, that's the word. After all, Flynn might've been a User but he was or more precisely, had been Tron's friend. But Alan-One was Tron's creator, the writer of everything that made him up. And he had the honor of meeting him face to face.  
"Alan-One..."  
"Yes?"  
There was one question, one question that Tron had been wondering about ever since he met Flynn.  
"Why did you create me?"  
Alan-One chuckled, leaving Tron confused.  
_How is this humorous?_  
"Well, Tron, truthfully I originally created you because I felt the need to keep guard of all ongoing connections between ENCOM and other systems, not to mention the MCP. Of course, at that time I had no idea that you were... well what you are. All I saw was lines of code that served a certain function for me. That's really how everyone besides Flynn, me and Sam see programs."  
"Sam?"

_Oh damn. This might be a problem_.  
"Flynn's son. His, er... successor I suppose."  
"Has Flynn been derezzed?"  
Alan nodded. Tron was even quieter than usual.  
"What happened?"  
Alan drew in a breath.  
"Things... did not go well in the Grid. I assume you know about the..."  
They both nodded.  
"Anyway, Flynn created this program called Clu to manage the Grid while he was in the User world. Clu's purpose of creating a perfect digital world overrided his loyalty to Flynn and he betrayed him. Flynn spent over a thousand of your cycles trapped in the Grid til Sam came and they tried to leave. Sam made it out but Flynn stayed behind to take care of Clu. I'm sorry."  
Tron was in deep thought. Sure, his feelings towards Flynn hadn't been very warm since he last left, but Flynn had been his best friend for over a User year and he did save Tron's life several times during the reign of the MCP. It hurt, but he'd get over it, just like with Yori.  
"We should move on, Alan-One. It's not safe out here."  
Alan and Tron walked to the entrance of the great YouTube Nexus. With Alan's User powers, it was easy for them to slip past the antivirus programs.

"Oh my god..."  
It was like a combination of a gigantic casino, twenty frenzied night clubs and a big disco room. It. Was. Insane.  
_Finding a way home is gonna be a lot harder than we thought. _thought Emma.  
They tried to move around the crowd of video programs, but the problem was that every time they touched a program, Emma and Snow literally saw the video as if it was a daydream. The problem was they had like 20 of them going on inside them and shutting them off required another and another and another piece of energy.  
This was gonna take a while.

Alan gritted his teeth as he moved through the crowd. The rock music echoing through the halls didn't make it much better and pretty soon he had a big headache. Tron seemed to be doing much better as he didn't constantly have videos playing in his brain. He did look at many of the video programs showing their content holographically.  
"Alan-One!"  
He turned to see Tron's eyes fixed on something. He turned around. It was a holographic represenation. Of Tron fighting someone.  
**"Flynn, go!" **  
**"I never saw him again."**


	10. GregMendy223

It had taken a while, but eventually Emma and Snow found their way to the lower levels. There were hundreds of them, because after all this place was one of the most visited pages ever. In the basements, they found a whole network of cart-like vehicles that constantly brought video programs to YouTube. Emma said: "Okay, now we just need to find a cart that can take us to Maine. Getting to Storybrooke from there shouldn't be a problem."  
Snow nodded absent-mindedly. The duo looked around the basement and questioned a number of gruff guards(usually by User methods) until they finally found a User that was from Maine: someone called GregMendy223. Suddenly, Emma grabbed the program operating that system and absorbed his whole energy, turning Emma's circuits green. Snow grabbed her arm, reversing the color back to blue. "What did you just do?!" Emma hushed her. "Relax, Snow, I just took over his functions so I could operate this thing."  
"Emma, that's murder and you know it!"  
Emma had to restrain a chuckle. "Is that murder when you toss an old photo or video in the Recycle Bin? Snow, they're just programs."  
"Is that what you thought when you left Tron to die in that canyon?"  
Emma was silent.

Alan and Tron stared at the video and then ordered it replayed.  
**"Flynn! Am I still to create the perfect system?"**  
**"Yeah."**  
**"Go."**  
They watched as Tron in a very odd version of a light suit with no helmet, destroyed some programs, literally dissolving them and then as what could only be Clu, choked Flynn and tossed him down.  
**"You've been corrupted."**  
**"Why? Why?"**  
**"Flynn, GO!"**  
**"I never saw him again."**  
Tron stared wide-eyed at Alan who was just as surprised as he was.  
_How did a video from the GRID get to YouTube? Did Flynn have a camera team there or something? Then again, knowing Flynn..._

Emma had taken control of the cart which was now driving at neck-breaking speeds through digital tunnels to the Maine servers, specifically to "GregMendy223".  
"Snow... I'm... I'm sorry, okay?"  
Snow didn't respond.  
"Look, I know these are thinking people, but there was no other way I could've controlled the cart to go in reverse."  
"You could've just used the original plan and find a User from Storybrooke who connected to Youtube."  
"But we don't even know their Usernames!"  
Snow sighed.

Alan and Tron walked through the basement. Alan had lost count on how many programs they'd been interrogating to find two female Users wandering around, but eventually, they discovered that an upload program was missing and that a cart was missing. Thus, Alan had been forced to absorb another program and steal another cart. He didn't know how long it was until User "DarthRushy" noticed it nor did he want to know. Suddenly, the cart started with such speed that Alan was knocked down. Tron grabbed him before he could fall off the cart.  
"Alan-One! Are you unharmed?!"  
"Are you bloody kidding me?! I'm gonna give Sam the biggest talk-down of the 21st century for this!"

Despite the large speed of the cart, Emma ultimately fell asleep, completely exhausted, her circuits glowing dim. Snow watched as she slowly breathed up and down and felt exhaustion overpowering to herself as well. She laid down next to her and closed her eyes.  
CLAAAAAAAAAAANNG!  
Both of their eyes jolted open to find that their cart had stopped.  
"Oh come on!" Snow whined.  
Suddenly, Emma and Snow were grabbed by strong, harsh arms who dragged them out.  
"Under the orders of User GregMendy223, you are under arrest for viral intrusion of this system."  
_Oh great. Antivirus._

The cart stopped with a big screech. Suddenly, the duo saw over 20 blue-circuited Anti-Virus guards emerging.  
"Alan-One, give me your disc."  
Tron, following his copy's example, took Alan's disc and quickly allowed himself to adapt to the ability of wielding dual discs. Then, he jumped out and Alan watched in amazement as he derezzed the whole group in under 10 seconds.  
_Maybe I should be more careful when writing programs..._  
Tron tossed Alan's disc back to him and helped him climb out of the cart.  
"It's probable that Emma and her mother have already been taken by the guards. We should locate them as soon as possible. " said Tron. Alan just nodded and followed him.

In the User world, Greg Mendell stared at his computer screen. The AVG had caught two very dangerous viruses in his computer designated "EMMA-SWAN" and "MARY-MARGARET-BLANCHARD" before the whole AVG crashed. Obviously someone was trying to hack his computer. He quickly started a search diagnostic.


	11. Reunion

Alan and Tron scurried around the empty corridors, trying to remain undetected. They came across three AV guards. Tron made what seemed to be a kung fu leap and tossed the disc precisely so it derezzed all three. Alan raised his eye-brows.  
"This is what you do around here? Toss discs and derezz each other."  
Tron shrugged. "I'm a warrior program, Alan-One. It's my job."

Emma and Snow were magnetically attached to what Emma eventually recognized as the same devices that the Master Control Program had used to derezz his prisoners. She'd tried to tell the programs that she was a User but they hadn't believed her and conveniently, neither she nor Snow had enough energy left to do any cool tricks, they were both extremely exhausted.  
"Identify yourselves, viruses!" yelled the superior AV guard.  
"My name is Emma Swan and I am not a virus." Emma responded quietly.  
"A lie! We caught you trying to sneak into the system!"

_Okay, not a virus._ thought Greg. Having accessed the AV archive, he quickly found that the "viral programs" were far too sophisticated to be any kind of virus. It was almost as if they were self-aware and if that was true, they had to be some kind of Area 51 thing gone haywire. He heard a beep and realized the search diagnostic had finished.  
_Oh crap. The AVG has been breached. By more viruses. What the hell is happening in this computer?!_  
Greg quickly turned the laptop around and removed its battery, cutting power to it instantly.  
_That ought to do it til I get it fixed._

Suddenly, the magnetic hold was released and both Emma and Mary Margaret fell off to the floor. Resisting the urge to fall asleep, Emma noticed that all of the programs seemed to be in a catatonic state. Dragging the semi-conscious Snow with her, Emma stumbled around a corridor and bumped into Tron.

"Tron!"  
_Found them!_  
"I'm afraid not, young lady."  
It was only then that the young woman seemed to notice Alan's age.  
"You're... you're Tron's creator?"  
Alan nodded. "My name is Alan. Alan Bradley."  
"But... how do you know?"  
"Of what?"  
"You know..." miss Swan waved her hands around the place. "This."  
Alan realized what she meant. "Oh, my friend, Sam Flynn told me. And you? What are you doing in here? Who are you?"  
Miss Swan lowered miss Blanchard to the floor and faced Alan.  
"My name is Emma Swan, I'm from Maine and me and my friend are trying to get..."  
Alan interrupted: "to Storybrooke? What exactly is Storybrooke, miss Swan?"  
"Storybrooke is... Storybrooke is just a false name we came up with."  
"You didn't trust my program?"  
Suddenly, Emma remembered what had happened in the Outlands.  
"Mr. Bradley, Tron, he's..."  
"He's quite safe, miss Swan. He's right over there."  
Alan pointed to a nearby wall where indeed, Tron was in a similar catatonic state as all the other programs.  
"But... how? I saw him derezz."  
"Well, I didn't see you. I managed to restore him before he derezzed. You see, the reason I'm here is to find out why Tron left ENCOM without instructions from us. I figured that it had to be a User like Flynn to make Tron do that."  
Emma pointed at Tron.  
"What's wrong with him? What's... what's wrong with..."  
The last thing Emma remembered was mr. Bradley catching her before she succumbed to deep sleep.

As everything around him seemed unconscious, Alan thought it best to drag Tron, Emma and Snow into a hidden section of the labyrinth that was GregMendy223's laptop before the computer was reactivated and everything would start working again. As they laid there, he thought it best to get a nap as well and start asking more questions tomorrow.

Zuse smiled boisterously. For once he didn't care who saw him or heard him, because he had never been happier. His User was pleased with him, after all and that was every program's dream. The data he'd gained from Snow White's disc seemed to be very valuable to him and that was all that mattered. He knew that his User would put the data to good use in ENCOM. Pity he couldn't tell him about the Grid and Kevin Flynn, but the Creator had forced him to secrecy. Perhaps one day, though... Zuse might just give in to temptation.


	12. Arrival

"Wake up! WAKE UP!"  
Ms. Swan's yelling woke up Alan fairly quickly: he was used to his alarm clock waking him up.  
"What? What is it?"  
Alan froze when he looked outside their little corner in the computer. Searchlights from Recognizers were going around the labyrinth, obviously trying to find the group. Tron was still unconscious, but Emma and Mary were both awake and apparently looking for Alan to solutions.  
"Help me carry him!"  
Mary and Emma took Tron and dragged him with them as Alan led the group down some more corridors until they came to a cliff where they saw a huge Wall of China-like barrier surrounding the giant labyrinth.  
"If we can't find a way out, this could be a problem." said Alan. He then told Emma and Snow to put Tron down and energized him, waking him up.  
"Alan-One? What is happening?" asked a confused Tron. "We're in an unknown computer system. A barrier has been placed all over it, we need to get out."  
Tron stood up and glanced at the Wall and the lights.  
"The system is being diagnosed for viral infection. Meaning us."  
"And how are we supposed to fight that?" asked Emma. Tron snorted. He was wrong to believe that Users were all Flynns and Alans. They were like programs: all different.  
"Every system has its own flaws, its own viruses. We must simply find them and get out with them." said Tron.  
"How do we find a virus, everyone are offline here?" asked Alan.  
"There's a difference between virus and program, Alan-One. They are never offline."

Greg stood at the shop, worried out of his guts. It intensified when the shopkeepers came back and told him that something was very wrong with the computer and it had to be taken away for some time. He'd left the shop, thinking what could possibly be so important about him that his laptop had to be hacked by not one, but TWO of the greatest viruses of all time.  
There was only one, only one bizarre thing like that that had ever happened to him. It was in 1983, when he was camping with his father... when they'd found Storybrooke. Greg took out his phone and called Her. It was time.

"Are you crazy?!" asked Alan.  
For 4 hours, they'd been hiding in an old, obscure file that the search hadn't located yet when Emma, fed up with it came up with the most insane plan in history and Alan had heard some(mostly from Flynn).  
_Combine our powers? Take out the Recognizers? Obviously ms. Swan has spent a bit too much time with my program._"Ms. Swan, let me remind you that I'm not Tron who thinks that we're gods or something because we're NOT. No offense Tron, but we have LIMITS. Limits and boundaries!"  
Emma scoffed. "Is that how you view the world, Bradley? Limits and boundaries? WE'RE IN A COMPUTER, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"  
"Which is exactly why we need to be careful, not go around like some kind of a goddamn Jedi! Look what happened to Flynn!" yelled Alan. "LOOK WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO US!" yelled Mary back. "We need to get to Story... to Maine and we can't do that if we're stuck here!"  
Alan double-facepalmed.

"Ready?"  
"Ready."  
In front of Tron(who felt like he was getting a religious experience), three Users took each others hands and light began to emanate from them. Their circuits flared more powerfully than Tron had ever seen. He could almost feel the power coming from them. Above, all of the Recognizers broke apart and fell down like a rain of meteors except for one that perfectly reassembled itself in front of them. The Users released each other and fell down, obviously very exhausted. Tron ran to the one that mattered most to him.  
"Alan-One, are you unharmed?"  
Alan looked at him with weary eyes.  
"I'm... getting... too... old... for... this..." he lost consciousness.  
Tron dragged Alan-One into the Recognizer's cockpit and placed him down near the control console and then repeated the process with Emma and Mary Margaret. He then stepped up to the console, grabbed the grips and as Flynn had once said, "got the show on the road."

The Recognizer hummed as it made its way across the computer world, guided by a program who had never even left ENCOM before(his counterpart in the Grid didn't count). Remembering Emma's coordinates, Tron set the Recognizer towards Maine.

The Recognizer beeped warningly.  
_I don't understand, there's nothing there to avoid!_  
It beeped even more loudly.  
_Is there a malfunction or something?_  
Tron tried to find the error when blue, magical energy enveloped him, interfering with his code.  
_ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!_  
The Recognizer, unguided by anyone had arrived to Storybrooke.


	13. Storybrooke

Just like Flynn 20 years ago, the beeps and shrills of the Recognizer woke Emma up. She raised her head dizzily and looked out of the window. Within a moment, she was completely awake.  
Mainly because the Recognizer was flying straight at Gold's Pawn Shop at top speed.  
"HOLY-!"  
Emma jumped up and grabbed the control grips, but it was too late. The Recognizer rammed straight in and and practically crushed the shop.  
_Gold is gonna give me so much crap for this._  
Emma crawled out of the debris and found both Snow and Alan, disoriented. However, Tron was in a far worse shape. Part of his chest was damaged data and Emma sensed that his source code was a jumble. Magic had really screwed up the program.  
"Emma? What happened? Where are we?" asked Snow. "Mary, calm down, we're in Storybrooke. I don't know how or when we got here, though." replied Emma.  
"Storybrooke? So you were lying to me. Again." said a wary Alan. His trust in them had obviously faded.  
Emma said: "Alan, we don't have time for this. We need to find out what's going on. We need to get out of this wreck."  
Alan smirked and activated his disc. "I'm sorry, folks. But I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers."  
"You don't want to do this." said Emma and withdrew hers.  
"I'm not going along with two crazy terrorists or whoever the hell you are either!" barked Alan. Snow intervened just in time.  
"Alan, we're... we're people from what you would call another dimension."  
Alan stared at her for 10 seconds and then chuckled. "Yeah, that's a nice one, Mary. Keep going."  
Emma lost her patience: "Look around you, Bradley! WE WERE JUST IN A COMPUTER WORLD, another dimension isn't that far-fetched! Things are different here. You see... we're from... we're from fairytales. We're fairy-tale characters who were brought here because of a curse."  
Alan looked bewildered, but then noticed a hole in the cockpit wreck. Before Emma could stop him, he dashed out.

Henry and Charming both flinched at the same time when Henry's laptop unexpectedly beeped. They had been eating breakfast and Henry had left it downloading the classic "Pinocchio" movie from online when it did.  
"Gramps? Could you come take a look at this?"  
"Sure. What is it?"  
Charming came over and looked over the boy's head. Green data flowed through the screen as if someone had put in a "Matrix" DVD.  
"What happened?" he asked.  
Henry responded: "I dunno. I just came over here and this was it."  
Charming tried to use the keyboard, but the laptop did not respond.  
"Wait here, I'll call Gold over here. Nothing breaks down in this town without a good reason." he said worriedly.

"STOP HIM!" a harsh, female voice called out. Before Alan could get anywhere, numerous red-tinted guards caught him, ms. Swan and ms. Blanchard.  
A young woman with a scowl on her face strode towards them. The woman wore a very peculiar and somewhat stylish purple-circuited light suit. As soon as she saw Swan and Blanchard, her scowl turned into a smirk.  
_Something tells me that she scowls and smirks a lot._  
Snow gasped.  
"Regina..."  
"Regina" laughed.  
"Did you honestly expect to return to Storybrooke just. like. that? Honestly expect me to just sit by as my User's greatest enemy returned? I'm disappointed in you, Snow. And you too. ms. Swan. I expected better strategy from all of you. Perhaps I should introduce myself? I am Zelia, the administrator of the Storybrooke system and now your terminator."  
She scowled again when she saw Alan.  
"And who might you be?"  
Alan bowed her head a little.  
"Alan Bradley, ma'am. These two ladies attracted the attention of my security program. I'm here to know exactly why."  
Zelia looked him over, as if x-raying him.  
"Very well. Release him!"  
The guards let Alan go.  
"Please... my program's been damaged, I could use some assistance." asked Alan.  
"And assistance shall be provided. I help my friends out." replied Zelia and motioned some more guards to retrieve Tron's damaged and catatonic form.

As purple magic emanated from his fingers, Gold got instant access to the inner workings of Henry's laptop. Ignoring all useless data, he dug in further and further and further, file after file until he found the cause of the breakdown in the laptop.  
_A virus? Here?_  
He understood very well what a virus is(cursed memories could be a blessing), but Gold was confused as to how exactly it had gotten to this computer. Fair enough, the curse was broken, but the Storybrooke system should still be impenetrable. Perhaps he ought to visit Regina...  
Gold removed his hand from Henry's keyboard and looked at Charming and regretted for the thousandth time that he had sent him to replace his dead brother, James. Fair enough, the course of history in the Enchanted Forest would've been radically altered(except for Snow and David of course. True love will always find a way), but the problem was that as far as Gold was concerned, Charming simply lacked the intelligence and the ability to let things go that was required from a true leader. He could be clever of course, but on other occasions, his presence made Gold even miss sir Gaston, for god's sake.  
"It's nothing to be worried about," said Gold. "Just a magic glitch."  
Charming raised his eyebrow.  
"A glitch? Glitches don't happen here, Gold and you know it very well."  
"Well, this particular one did. It might have been caused by magic, might have been caused by natural causes, I don't know. But it did. But fear not for I can ease your pain."  
He smirked a little at Charming's discomfort at hearing the same words again.  
"I've fixed the computer. There's no reason for distrust this time." Gold said.  
"How do we know you didn't do it just to get access to the computer?" asked Charming.  
_Oh for the love of-!_  
"Because if I wanted access to the computer, Charming, I would've gotten it anywhere but here." With those words, Gold limped out of the apartment.


	14. The Recycle Bin

Alan wandered around "Storybrooke", trying to find answers. Sure, he might've been a little naive in his youth, but Alan Bradley was not, nor had he ever been, stupid. He knew from the moment he laid eyes on Zelia that this was not a friend and if he could've saved ms. Swan and ms. Blanchard, he would have. But the security in Storybrooke was impenetrable. Soon, Alan found himself walking into a digital reconstruction of a clock tower and arrived to find a middle-aged red-circuited man there, working on numerous lines of data at the same time. The man noticed Alan and spoke first: "User contact will have to wait, dearie. As you can see, I'm a little busy at the moment."  
"Oh, I'm not here to make User contact... who are you exactly?" asked Alan.  
The man replied: "Silver. My name's Silver. I operate Storybrooke's system."  
"You mean you're a Guardian?"  
Silver let out a giggle. "You mean one of those I/O tower operators from the 1980's? I'm afraid not."  
Alan raised his hand towards Silver. "Well, my name's Alan." Silver shook it.  
"Yes I know, your arrival to Storybrooke was quite... unique.  
At that moment, a blue-circuited female with a very... "unsuitable" suit for a lady as far as Alan was concerned, came in with drinks.  
"Ah, thank you for that, Crimson." said Silver. Crimson gave Alan a glass and Alan awkwardly took it, not really knowing what it is.  
"And she is...?"  
"Crimson works at the inn. She brings me a drink or two whenever I feel the need for powerup.  
"Right." Alan drank the substance and his eyes widened.  
He could literally feel the power flowing through him and had he not been such a mild-mannered person, he might've yelled out: "POWAAAHHHH! UNLIMITED POWAHHH!"  
Thank god he was, though.

Zelia walked into the room with her trademark smirk and with sheriff Graham in tow.  
"Graham!" yelped Emma.  
Graham looked confused. "I am Jo3N, the Head of Security for this system. I'm here to examine the Tron program."  
Emma sat in a corner, hugging herself. Jo3n moved over and quickly looked over Tron. He shook his head. "There's not much good left of this program. I think he should be recycled, though. Some of his coding might still be useful for us."  
Zelia nodded. "Now there's a good thought. Please go and tell the good mr. Bradley to join us."  
Jo3n left the room and Zelia motioned for her guards to take Emma and Snow with her.

Alan had left Silver working on his yellow coding, which the program told was meant to improve the system, whatever that meant. He was on the streets again, when he was approached by Jo3n.  
"User Alan-One?" he asked. Alan nodded absent-mindedly.  
"Zelia requests your presence at the Recycle Bin. Tron is being recycled."  
"Wait, what?!" yelled Alan.  
"Tron is being recycled. He is beyond repair." said Jo3n calmly.  
Alan waved around with his hands, frantic. "Where the hell is the "Recycle Bin"?!"  
Jo3n took Alan into his Light Runner and began driving.

"Morning, dearie." said mr. Gold.  
"Not so good anymore. What do you want?"  
"Well, I would like to ask you about the virus you seem to have released into the computers."  
Regina motioned for Gold to come in.  
"What are you talking about? I haven't made any viruses, I don't... _Regina Mills_ doesn't even know how to make them."  
Gold became angry. He didn't like to be wrong. "Well then who does? I found a very advanced virus in Henry's computer, a virus that must've been created by someone very intelligent and who had access. There aren't that many computers in Storybrooke, you know that. So I ask you, yet again: who did it?"  
Regina scowled. "And I tell you again: I do not know. The virus isn't my design, what would I have to gain by "hacking" into my son's computer?"  
Gold pursed his lips.  
"Well, maybe the access that you don't have to him right now?"  
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Regina, outraged.  
"It means, dearie, that your obsession with Henry is clouding your judgment. I want to know who designed the virus and why. And I will know. I always do."  
Gold left Regina's house, leaving her both angry and frightened.

Jo3n took Alan to a digital reconstruction of a stone well on a pedestal. Emma and Snow sat nearby, tied with light cords. Tron was also there, on a stretcher and Zelia stood triumphant. Alan hurried closer.  
"What the hell is going on here?!"  
"Patience, mr. Bradley," replied Zelia. "Your Tron program is irreparable by any methods known to man or program. I suggest we get rid of this junk so you could design a new one."  
Alan glanced at the two prisoners.  
"What are they doing here?" he asked calmly.  
"They're here to watch. Emma Swan and Snow White have caused damage enough to my User."  
_Snow White?_  
He raised his eyebrows. Regina grinned.  
"So they haven't told you about their fairytales yet?"  
Alan snorted. "Surely you don't believe in such nonsense, I mean after all you are programs."  
Zelia's grin widened.  
"That's exactly my point, mr. Bradley. I'm just a program."  
Jo3n pushed Alan into the well and Zelia opened her arms. Purple, magical smoke floated covered the well and Zelia yelled something incomprehensible, feeling pure delight.

As the smoke finally vanished and everything became visible again, Emma gasped.  
Alan Bradley stood at the well, his circuits purple, his twisted grin utterly different from his usual smile.  
"Who's just a program _now_?"


	15. Everything's Gonna Be Alright

"Alan? What has happened to you?" Emma sounded really, really scared, even to herself.  
Alan's grin deepened.  
"Alan Bradley isn't here anymore. What you see before you is my new shell. With..."  
"Alan" twirled his fingers.  
"... User power."  
Snow realized who Alan was. "Zelia... what did you do?!" she asked her/him.  
Alan/Zelia replied: "I deleted him. Just like that. The Alan you knew is gone. I am here. And now... you will join him."  
Alan/Zelia clapped his/her hands and the guards immediately grabbed Emma and Snow. Emma's gut burned with hate. Fair enough, she hadn't known Bradley for really more than two or three days... how long had they been here anyway? but everything she'd gone through since then and with Tron made her feel like she knew him.  
_Wait... Tron. There's a thought._  
As the guards pushed her and Snow into the well, Emma concentrated herself on Tron. Time seemed to slow around her until everything was frozen. Emma could literally see Tron's coding in her eyes and could shift or delete anything at will. She isolated the damaged code and mentally wrote new ones to replace them, also adding data about their current predicament. The problem was that besides the damage caused by the Recognizer crash, magic had also greatly disrupted his code, requiring extensive repair that she somehow managed to do. The world seemed utterly frozen into a single moment. Perhaps it was, she didn't know. What she did know was that in, what seemed like hours, she managed to repair Tron completely.  
It was then that she realized that Tron would need approximately ten minutes to reboot. 10 minutes that Snow and her didn't have, but were going to get.  
"SNOW, DUCK!" yelled Emma and threw herself into the guards.  
Alan/Zelia smirked at her pitiful attempt at escape and transferred some of his/her power to the Recycle Bin, hoping to create a derezzing shockwave.  
Suddenly, a disk flew at him/her and neatly cut off his hand.  
Never in any universe had Zelia ever heard of pain before. Never in any universe had she expected to feel negative power at this quantity. Screaming and bleeding, she/he fell down to his/her knees and just screamed out of his/her lungs until losing consciousness.

Seeing Alan/Zelia fall, Emma made it to Tron and used her energy to fasten the reboot. Tron opened his eyes to see Emma over him.  
"Alan-One? Alan-One!"  
Tron jumped to his feet and ran over to Alan-One, but it was too late. He was gone forever.

Unfortunately for Tron, he didn't get much time to grief as discs began flying towards him and it took his military skills to avoid them. He grabbed a pair of nearby discs and took a fighting stance. One, that he didn't need since new discs flew into the crowd and within seconds, all of the guards, including Jo3n were derezzed.  
Silver, the leader of the group walked in. It was admittedly a little peculiar seeing Gold's avatar walk around with no cane, but his smirk solved the issue.  
"Well, it seems we've taken care of our Zelia. How wonderful."  
Emma rose to her feet. "Gold?! Oh you've got to be joking." With a groan, Emma fell down again. Tron moved over to her. "Emma. Are you unharmed?" he asked.  
"Oh just brilliant. I'm inside a computer and avatars of the worst possible people to show up are showing up. Just fine. Having a great day."  
Tron raised his eyebrows. The concept of humor and sarcasm had always evaded him.  
Snow spoke first: "Look, Gold or whoever you are, can you take us back outside?"  
"Outside? Whatever do you mean?"  
Tron sighed. "They're Users, program. It is your duty to service them."  
Silver spoke: "Ohhhh... Users? Well, then I am in your service. Follow me, please."  
Silver lead the way back to Storybrooke and Emma, Snow and Tron followed him and the other blue programs with him.

In Storybrooke, changes were obvious. Much of the red had vanished and was replaced with purple or blue. Zelia's reign was over and she herself had been taken to the prison cell.  
Tron knew not to underestimate a psychotic program with User abilities and had ordered the other programs to take him to guard her, leaving Silver, Snow and Emma alone. Silver took the two to the clock tower, where he sat down again to his console.  
"I am opening up a communication with the computer of Henry Mills. Is that alright for you, dearie?"  
Emma nodded.

Henry was playing GLTron on his computer when it happened. The Terminal popped up. Henry frowned for it was a program he'd never really used.  
**-Henry? Can you hear me?**  
**-Who are you?**  
**-It's me. Emma.**  
**-Where are you?!**  
**-I'm in the computer, Henry. Get your grandfather here right now.**  
Henry jumped up and ran to the cell phone with speed equaling a Light Cycle.

Charming was working at the sheriff's station and groaned at the large stack of paper that sat on his desk. Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work.  
_I swear to God, if I have to settle one more dispute between Forest and Curse problems, I will go crazier than Jefferson._  
His phone rang. He felt annoyed like hell until he noticed it was Henry.  
"Henry? I'm a little busy right now."  
Henry sounded ultra-excited.  
"Grampsyougottacomehererightnow!"  
"Whoa, whoa, slow down, buddy. What's up?"  
"IT'S MOM! I FOUND HER, COME HERE!"  
The sheriff's station was empty.

Charming quite possibly broke the light barrier when he drove home on his car and jumped out. Running up the stairs, he found Henry, who had already opened the door and dragged him to his computer, where he saw...  
**-David?**  
**-Emma? Is that you?**  
**-It's me, David. Snow and I are both here.**  
**-What happened to you? Where are you?**  
**-We ended up in the Tron world. Not a nice place.**  
**-I can imagine. Are you safe now?**  
**-Besides a digital mr. Gold, we're fine.**  
Charming had to restrain a chuckle.  
_They're_ _fine!_ _They're safe! They're coming home! Wait..._  
**-How do we get you out?**  
**-I don't exactly know.**  
**-What do you mean?**  
**-Well, the only person who knows how is now dead. Ask Regina, her digital double killed him.**  
**-I WILL.**  
**-Snow wants to talk to you.**  
**-Charming?**  
**-Snow. How are you?**  
**-It's VERY good to hear your voice.**  
**-I wish I could hear yours.**  
**-You will. Soon. I am not staying in Digitalbrooke. **  
**-But Emma said that the only person who knows how to leave is dead.**  
**-We'll figure it out. Get Gold. He might be able to help.**  
**-Good idea. I'll let Henry tell you the news while I do it.**  
**-I love you.**  
**-I love you more.**


	16. Threat Has Been Eliminated

After finishing an hour-long conversation with Henry, Emma stepped off the platform and placed her disc back on her back. Silver smiled, happy with himself.  
"Okay, now all we have to do is wait for Charming to talk to Gold and then we can be out of here. " said Emma.  
Snow nodded and the two sat and rested their backs on Silver's console.  
Everything was finally gonna be okay... when the alarm blared.

* * *

"What the hell is going on?!" yelled Emma into the midst of frantic programs running around.  
Silver responded, knowing everything as usual: "It appears your Tron program has caused a... shall we say disaster? He has apparently chosen to execute Zelia."  
Emma froze. "You mean he killed Alan?"  
Silver looked annoyed. Which was odd since Gold rarely did. "User Alan-One is already dead. Tron killed Zelia."  
Emma threw her hands up, frustrated. "Where the hell is he?!"  
Silver rose from his console. "This way."  
He took them outside the clock tower.

* * *

"Gramps!" yelled Henry into the phone. "Something's going on in the computer!"  
Henry could practically hear Gold's smirk over the phone.  
Withing minutes, Charming was in the house. "What's going on?!"  
Henry showed Charming the laptop: "I can't access the administrative program!"  
Charming stopped in his tracks. "That's it?! I thought Emma and Snow are in danger!"  
"No, you don't get it! There's a world inside this thing! If a program, especially the administrative program doesn't work, there's got to be a reason!"  
_Huh. That makes sense._ thought Charming. "Have you tried talking to them?"  
"Of course," said Henry. "They're not responding. The terminal isn't saying anything."

* * *

"You killed him!" yelled Emma, her voice cracking. Tron seemed emotionless.  
"Alan-One was gone. The corrupt program Zelia was simply using what was left of his abilities. I neutralized a threat as Alan-One would've wanted me to before she could've affected the rest of the system and potentially your world as well!" said Tron harshly. Snow intervened. "That doesn't give you the right to derez whoever you wish!"  
Tron snorted. "Programs are not Users, Mary Margaret, despite what you might believe. Corruption may be tolerated in your world, but down here, things are different. Things are better."  
Emma didn't like what she was hearing.  
"Tron... Alan was our only chance of getting back to our world."  
"A chance lost from the moment he was recycled!" spat Tron. He straightened himself. Snow threw her hands up in frustration.  
"Do you mean we have to go all the way back to ENCOM to get access to the laser data?!"  
Emma groaned.  
But was there a choice?

* * *

**-Charming, there's been a complication. The only one who knew the design of the laser to get us out is dead. The information can only be regained from the ENCOM system, right back from the beginning of our journey.**  
**-Not necessarily. Gold says he's making progress on getting you out. I don't trust him, but it seems better than going all the way back. What happened in there anyway?**  
**-Digital Regina gave us some trouble, but it's been dealt with now. I'm more worried about Tron, though. He killed her in cold blood.**  
**-They're just programs, Emma.**  
**-Yes, but the program was possessing Alan. Tron practically killed his own creator, even though Alan was basically already gone.**  
**-Emma, programs work differently than us, you have to get over it. We need to focus on getting you out.  
**

* * *

Tron sat on the bunk bed of his cell and and closed his eyes. For a second, he could see the solar sailer flying through the ENCOM system, Flynn asking childlike questions from the two of them, using the power beam to create a junction, saving his and Yori's life. Oh and Yori... how, how had his life become so terribly ruined? He was a good program per his own calculations. He'd fulfilled every task Alan-One set out for him, he'd taken down the corrupt Sark program single-handedly and was the one who pulled the trigger that took down the Master Control Program himself. Flynn had been the first to go to his "digital frontier to recreate the human condition" with his own copy of Tron. Yori had been derezzed 400 cycles later. Dumont was taken out of business. And now, the last vestige of his past, Alan-One was gone.  
_What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to find my way back to ENCOM? Is that even possible? Should I help these Users? Should I control them? What am I supposed to do? Who would give me my instructions now?_  
It was the duty of each and every program to serve their Users. But Tron had none. He was in a foreign system for the first time in his life. He felt lost.  
_I fight for the Users_. was Tron's mantra.  
_But who are the Users?  
_

* * *

Mr. Gold frowned and restrained a yawn. He had worked all night on how to create a device capable of restoring Emma and Snow White to Storybrooke and despite what Charming or Regina said, it was NOT easy. Because the laser was in the wrong story. Jefferson's hat was out of the question for it was destroyed by King Genius George.  
He heard his doorbell ring and left his office. He found Regina standing in the middle of his shop.  
"Ah dearie. I hope for your sake that this is an update on that virus I asked you to investigate." he said.  
Regina smiled.  
"Correct. I've found the identity of the person who infected Henry's computer."  
"And who might that be?"  
"Someone called Castor."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Man, has it been a long time since my last OuaTron chapter! Sorry for that, I've just been incredibly busy but the story is NOT on hiatus. However, it is coming to a close pretty soon and I will be able to begin the sequel that I promoted earlier called Once Upon A Tron: Legacy which will feature Jefferson as the protagonist and will be better tied into the series itself(in that it doesn't conflict with established series canon).

And yes, Alan is DEAD. Permanently.


	17. Self-awareness

Emma hit her head against the wall. She couldn't help it for she was exhausted. Exhausted of all of this Tron crap. Tron made a good movie to be watched like once a month with Henry, but actually living here... that could drive one crazy.  
Not only that, but Tron was also different than the movies suggested, at least ever since their arrival to digital Storybrooke. He seemed... colder, more calculating, more un-Tronish.  
_Guess who I haven't seen today?_  
"If you hit any harder, you might crack your helmet, dearie."  
_Bingo._  
Emma turned around.  
"I already thought I'd get a day without you or your User, but apparently not.  
Silver smiled enigmatically.  
"Well, one has to keep up being a thorn on your side."  
Emma wasn't amused.

* * *

_Who am I?_ thought Tron as he sat in his cell in very deep thought. And there's another thing: thought. Programs aren't supposed to think, they just do what the Users command, that is their purpose.  
_Something changed me. I can think. I can decide. But how? Why am I different? Why?_  
Thinking, Tron realized there was one man in this town who could provide him answers. It was fortunate that the guards in Storybrooke were this lax. Within seconds, Tron had derezzed them and broken out of the sheriff's station. He made his way to the clock tower discreetly.

* * *

Tron quickly ducked behind a console as Emma and Mary Margaret walked over, discussing something humorous called "cinnamon" and "coffee". Whatever.  
_Whatever? Where did that thought come from?_  
As the two Users left the room, Tron came to Silver's. He grabbed his identity disc and placed it at Silver's neck.  
"Don't move or I'll derezz you." said Tron.  
"Somehow I doubt that. You didn't come here for nothing, did you Tron?"  
Tron smirked(smirked?) and let Silver go, but didn't let go of his disc.  
"I want to know what happened to me. How can I think like a User now? Why is my purpose no longer important to me? Am I malfunctioning?"  
Silver let out a chuckle.  
"Quite the opposite actually. I assumed something like this would happen once you three crossed into town."  
He rose up and moved away from his console.  
"It was Storybrooke that changed you, dearie. The magic here makes this system far different from the one you are used to. In here, anything is possible, including... self-awareness."  
"Self-awareness? Awareness of oneself... yes, that would be a good description for what I feel. But then... what am I supposed to do?"  
Silver made a peculiar hand gesture.  
"That is up to you, Tron. You decide what you have to do. Now please vacate the area before Emma and Mary Margaret return."  
Tron nodded, still confused, but at least he had something to base his new state on. He sneaked out and hid in an dark corner.  
_Alright Tron,_ _think_. _What are you supposed to do?_

* * *

**-When will the digitizer be ready?**  
**-Gold said that only about 7 hours more. We'll get you out of there in no time, don't worry. **  
**-Where's Henry?**  
**-He's with Regina.**  
**-REGINA?!**  
**-Uh... yeah.**  
**-Charming, if this isn't a joke, I'm going to kick your a**, then toss you down that damn hat and then write myself a digital double to kick it again.**  
**-Emma...**  
**-I don't want to hear it! That woman has done enough, really and digitally. GET HIM OUT OF THERE.**  
**-Okay, okay, I'm running.**

* * *

"Castor? Are you certain that's it?" asked Gold.  
"Positive." replied Regina, with a dark glare. "Now please leave."  
"What's going on?" asked Henry, looking confused.  
Gold answered before Regina could: "Oh, nothing, dear. Just friendly conversation."  
"Is my mom in danger?"  
At that moment, Henry seemed like Bae so much that Gold froze. Regina finished for him.  
"No. We were simply discussing a certain... abnormality that has nothing to do with your parents or magic. It's okay."  
Henry nodded and went back to play.  
That is, until Charming stepped in unannounced.  
_I bet all the gold I've created that he's going to ask us what evil plan we're doing now..._  
"What's going on here?!" asked Charming, angry.  
"Nothing to be concerned of, we were just discussing the situation." said Regina.  
"Without me?"  
_I win all my gold._  
"Yes, without you." snapped Gold and limped out of the house.  
"HENRY!" yelled Charming. Henry showed up and Charming placed his hands on his shoulders, protectively.  
"Emma asked for you, let's go."  
"Ok."

* * *

Tron moved between the streets furtively, hoping that no one would recognize or even look at him. So far he'd been lucky. He made his way slowly back to where they'd crashed(it took a few minutes because he had no memories of it) and found a complete disarray at the remnants of the pawn shop. Making sure that no one was looking, he grabbed a chunk of debris, tossed it behind him and crawled in.  
If his maps were right, this was the remains of Silver's quarters. It was a good place to start, if any. It was hard to even get into the shop as it was practically buried under the remains of the Recognizer.  
_Next time I go on a mission out of ENCOM, I'm taking my bloody Carrier..._  
_Bloody? How is a Carrier bloody?_  
It took the better part of an hour, but Tron ultimately cleared a path into the shop, finding dozens of broken objects and shattered glass everywhere.  
_Where is it?_  
He threw around the objects, none of them being what he wanted.  
_Where is it?!_  
He tossed around a few musical devices, some puppets that did NOT look pleasing and even an old lamp, until he found it.  
It was a golden egg, made to resemble the egg of a dragon or dinosaur, Tron knew that much about fiction.  
He snapped the egg open to find a bottle of perfectly preserved purple liquid.  
"That's mine, dearie."  
Tron jumped. Mistake.  
He fell down on the rubble, but managed to protect the bottle of magic.  
Silver stood(well as much as one could in a room made of debris) and grinned.  
Tron scowled.  
"I found it first."  
"Oh, I don't doubt that."  
Silver waved his hands.  
"How about we make a deal?"


	18. The Digitizer

"Why should I have to make a deal with you?" asked Tron.  
He had the bottle, he had a disc ready to throw at Silver, after all.  
"Because..."  
Silver snapped his fingers and the bottle transported out of Tron's hand and rezzed into his.  
"You want this bottle."  
He's good. thought Tron.  
"What do you want for the magic?" he asked.  
"A disc. My User tells me there's an errant program in Storybrooke called Zuse or Castor. Find him, eliminate him and bring me his disc. You bring me his disc and the magic's yours. Deal?"  
"Deal."

* * *

Gold sat in his workshop and admired the digitizer that he'd constructed.  
_I must remember to study this TRON world more closely. I'll talk to Jefferson and Henry later._  
He got up and let his magic send the digitizer directly into the Charmings' apartment with a letter on it.  
_I must also remember to construct a teleporter for myself._

* * *

Charming looked at the digitizer in awe. It was fairly beautiful and looked quite advanced for 80's technology. Henry was already all over it(he was extremely careful) and even made a few pictures.  
"When Mom and Grandma come out, I'll have the coolest picture for the album!"  
Charming smiled. Henry could be the most grown-up sometimes, but he was still a young kid.  
"I suggest you don't waste your phone's battery."  
Henry nodded and dashed into his room, probably to load it.  
Meanwhile, Charming got back to the terminal.

* * *

**-Gold finished the digitizer. He's coming over to plug it into the system. About 1 or 2 more hours and you're good to go.**  
**-That's fantastic news, honey. Emma is getting quite impatient over here, you know. I'm worried she'll derez the digital Gold pretty soon.**  
**-Tell her to add a hit from me.**  
**-Charming!**  
**-Sorry, couldn't help myself.**  
**-One more thing. Tron.**  
**-Snow, we talked about this. Computer world business is not ours.**  
**-Tron isn't computer world business anymore! We brought him to this Storybrooke, he's our responsibility and as such I think we should fix him before we...**  
**-What?**  
**-There's an alarm! I gotta go!**

* * *

"Please tell me it's not Tron again!" asked Emma urgently from the digital copy of Archie Hopper.  
The program responded: "It is. He's escaped."  
Emma quietly swore under her teeth and the two arrived at the sheriff's station.  
The digital copy of Leroy looked embarrassed.  
"You got 3 seconds to talk." said Emma, sounding a bit like the Queen.  
"Look, this isn't my fault. I just came in here, my guards were all derezzed and the guy was gone! Trust me, I know who this guy is and I would've added a lot more security if it weren't for someone who decided to derez them all." said "Leroy" in a pleading tone.  
"Silver was just trying to protect us and he did take down Zelia!" said Snow in a sharp tone. "But I understand."  
"What do we do now?" whispered Emma to Snow.  
"Tron isn't in his right mind now. All we have to do is use logic just like you said."  
Emma thought. She thought hard. Where would Tron go?

* * *

As he hacked into Silver's console, Zuse couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the responsibility his User had put into him. Tracking the User group had been difficult enough, getting into this bizarre, nonsensical system had been even harder.  
But Zuse had always been a flexible program and he could get through some tight spots.  
After his User had gained Snow White's data, he'd given Zuse some major updates, allowing him to reach a far greater potential.  
With Gem's help(and his own new skills), he'd finally found them. And now, he had a new mission. A mission greater than that of any program before.  
To become a User.

* * *

"Gold! Come on in, we've been expecting you."  
"Well, that's a nice in attitude." said Gold sarcastically.  
Charming chuckled: "Same here."  
Gold smirked and limped towards Henry's computer.  
"Unfortunately, there's been a complication." he said.  
Charming groaned mentally.  
"Now what?"  
"When I said earlier that Henry's computer was fine, I lied. A program released a virus into it which means that someone very smart and very powerful and with access tampered with the system. All I know is that the program's identity is Zuse or Castor."  
"I know" yelled Henry into their conversation.  
_That child would make a better Dark One than I do._  
"Castor's a program in Tron: Legacy! He's a bad guy!"  
"Yes, but what does he do?" asked Gold impatiently.  
Henry looked embarrassed: "He runs a bar. And makes deals."  
Charming raised eyebrows.  
"Well, coincidences do happen. What's his motivation?"  
"I... don't know."  
_So much for an apprentice..._  
"Can you fix it?"  
"It's not something to be fixed, dearie! I can't just go in there and fix that. Sure, I can plug this digitizer in. But there is no telling what will happen."  
Charming moved back to the terminal.

* * *

**-Gold says that it's too dangerous. That Castor could interfere with the digitizing process.**  
**-There's no one inside the tower besides me, Snow and digiGold! DO it! We'll have to, sooner or later!**  
**-Alright. Plugging in now.**


	19. Ending

The I/O beam of light suddenly became far brighter and more powerful.  
**-Step in.**  
Suddenly, a yell stopped Emma and Snow.  
"STOP!"  
They and Silver spun around fast to be faced with Zuse, holding a disc to Silver's control console.  
"You move and this connection goes." Snow looked shocked. "Zuse?"  
Emma turned to her. "You know this guy?"  
"Yeah, he was the one who smuggled me out of ENCOM."  
Suddenly she understood. "You used the data from my disc to follow us."  
Zuse looked proud of himself. "Well, I only did what my User wanted me to. Which is what all programs are for, after all."  
"Your User? Who?" asked Emma. "I'm afraid that's not your business, pretty miss. Your business is that I/O beam."  
**-Why aren't you coming through?!**  
Emma yelled at the beam: "We got a problem! Stand by!"  
"What do you want?!" she demanded.  
Zuse grinned: "Ohh, what do I want? I want what my User wants. I want to go through the beam."  
"Well, you can't." said Snow, smiling sympathetically. "You're only a program, you don't have any substance in the real world."  
"No...? But you do." said Zuse. "All I have to do is make Silver here access your DNA imprint and I'll be able to exit as either of you. Sounds like a fairly good idea now, too."  
"No!" snapped Emma. "You can't! We're Users. We need to leave."  
"Do you? Or is that..."  
Zuse was cut off when he transformed into glowing golden energy and vanished. Where he had been was now a yellow disc.  
Emma gasped: "Tron?"  
The yellow-circuited program grinned. "With a purpose at last."

* * *

It wasn't easy, looking for Zuse. But Tron had served in ENCOM for over 20 years and he knew how to find programs who wanted to hide. Guessing rightly that Zuse would want to use the I/O beam, he'd sneaked into the clock tower and interfered at just the right time. His new mission to obtain that bottle of magic though, was his own. It was his own. He no longer served a system, not really. He served his own purpose.  
That made him a rogue by default. And before Tron knew it, all his circuits changed color. They changed to yellow, the color of hackers, rogues and other programs from outside systems. It fit him well, Tron found.  
"I don't understand." said Emma.  
"It's very easy. I was lost, but now I found my purpose again. My own purpose. Not Alan-One's, not ENCOM's, _mine_. Thanks to magic, I am finally free."  
Emma didn't seem to like what she heard. Well, he'll make her like it. Users were not all-powerful and Tron knew it best.  
"Tron... your code has been affected. You should go back and..."  
Tron broke her off. "Oh, shut up!"  
Snow stood quiet, not expecting that.  
"Silver." said Tron.  
Silver smiled and nodded and in moments, the bottle rezzed into Tron's hand.  
"What is that?" asked Emma, afraid.  
"This? I am surpised you don't know, after all you encountered this in your own realm as well, no? This is a bottle of pure, unrefined magic. True love." replied Tron.  
Snow took a step towards him.  
"You mean the stuff that brought magic to Storybrooke?! That's dangerous, Tron! You should know that, you're the security program!"

* * *

Silver appeared behind Emma and Snow with his own disc drawn.  
"Please don't make any sudden moves so we can get this over with as quickly as possible. Hand over your disc."  
With a grunt, Emma took her disc off her back and feeling herself weakening, handed it to Silver.  
Tron smiled again. "This little potion here set me free. That is my mission now. This bottle is the key to the new system. A free system controlled by us, by programs with potential beyond measure!"  
Emma's voice was cold: "How?"  
"Magic, Emma. We're going to bring magic to the Internet. When we met, Mary Margaret said that my realm had to contain magic for whatever brought you there. Now... this magic here is going to unlock mine just like it unlocked yours."  
"You don't know what you're doing, Tron. This will never work! We created you and we can erase the system and start over if we want to!"  
Those words seemed to hit Tron.  
"Well then... I guess I'll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it."  
Smiling, he nodded at Silver and left. Pointing dual discs at Emma and Mary Margaret, Silver forced them towards the I/O beam.  
"Why are you doing this?" asked Emma.  
"Well... I'm invested in my future!"  
Emma and Snow White stepped into the beam. Silver gave her the disc back and Emma held it high above her head. The disc floated outside of her hand and the beam went even brighter.  
And then it was gone along with the Users.

* * *

Emma found herself against the wooden floor. She felt very dizzy, but managed to sit up.  
"Mary Margaret?" she asked, eyes still blinking.  
She heard Dr. Whale's voice.  
"Don't worry, she's alright. What about yourself?"  
Emma opened her eyes. She was sitting on the floor of Mary Margaret's apartment. Dr. Whale was looking down at her with worried eyes?  
"Where's everyone else?" she asked, ever practical.  
"The Prince and Snow needed some time alone and Henry's with Regina." Before Emma could bolt off the floor, he calmed her.  
"Don't worry, Charming said it's perfectly fine. I just want you to take a glass of something strong and get yourself to your feet. I already checked Snow over and there does not appear to be any residual changes due to your... trip." said Whale.  
"Thanks, doc."  
"Anytime."  
Whale left the apartment, leaving Emma there. She yawned and got herself to bed.  
Nothing better than a peaceful sleep after a long computer game before a hyper-active Henry attack.

* * *

Storybrooke was a different place now. Under the leadership of Tron and Silver, they had changed the place from a suppressed society under Zelia into a different kind of place. A free place. Programs were becoming independent and had their own opinions. They argued, they had temper tantrums but they also were closer than ever.  
_Chaos. Just the way it was supposed to be._  
And now there would be more of it than ever.  
As the citizens of Storybrooke stood beneath his feet, Tron walked up to the podium. His second-in-command stood behind him and walked close to him for a moment.  
"Be careful, Tron. Don't forget: magic always comes with a price."  
"I'll try to remember." he replied and stepped up.

* * *

"Greetings! I know that many of you see recent events as bad news, a curse within itself. But you need not worry. The magic brought to us from the other world has freed us from the slavery of the Users! It has freed us from our dependence on them! Are we not people as well?! Is this world not ours? It is! What happened here proved it! People like Kevin Flynn and Emma Swan do not belong here, but we do! We are free! And together, we will bring freedom and independence to others. We will bring it to the Internet! And I promise you now... I will not stop, you will not stop until this system is free from the Users! We are programs! We are smart, intelligent, powerful, wise and this place is ours to control! In service, we are nothing, but together, joined in an alliance we can achieve anything! We can achieve true justice! We will bring forth the Revolution! Always remember, my friends that you fight for yourselves! YOU FIGHT FOR THE PROGRAMS! I... I FIGHT FOR THE PROGRAMS!

* * *

Tron uncorked the bottle of magic and let a single drop fell to his hand. The small, intricate lines on his hand turned purple. He raised his hands and Storybrooke transformed around him and his army.  
It became a Carrier.  
And the Carrier was heading towards its first target. Home.  
_Time to go to ENCOM._

* * *

For the first time since the Curse broke, a peaceful night fell in Storybrooke. It was a starless, clouded night and no one was outside.  
Everyone except the computer.  
As everyone were in a deep sleep thanks to the rigors of yesterday, blue light emanated from the digitizer and a laser shot out from it, creating first the legs, then the torso and hands and finally the neck and head.  
The man wore an old-style vest. Nerdy glasses were on top of his head. Despite this, he still had a smart appereance though.  
_Of course._  
When his father first spoke of the digital universe, the man thought he was kidding, even though his father was not prone to jokes.  
It wasn't until the man saw it for himself that he believed. And things were different now.  
They had waited for 20 years to pay back for the injustice that was given to them. And Zuse had provided it to them. You can imagine the man's surprise as he learned that not only was there a digital universe, there was also a fairy tale universe.  
If he hadn't known that programs don't joke, he wouldn't have believed it. But it was true.  
Now, the man sneaked out of the apartment and opened the doors to outside. He breathed in the fresh air.

Edward Dillinger had come to Storybrooke.  
**FIN**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Wow! I certainly didn't expect this story to end during this chapter. My writing style is to just let it flow: I have no idea what I'm gonna write until it's on the screen(the last words of the story were pre-planned though.).

I really hope you enjoyed the story. In case you are interested, you can also check out the sequel, _Once Upon A Tron: Legacy_ which is now in the writing stage.  
Thanks for reading.

P.S. Reviews! Reviews! The Grid for a Review!


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